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08/29/2007

Looks as if I'll need a blue shirt

It was a poor weekend for the Celtic fringes on site with most of them losing their matches and South Africa looking ominously good it looks as if I'll have to swap the rose for "le coq " as the French team are looking on form. I am almost worried that England might have difficulty beating Samoa in Nantes the match I have a ticket for in 3 weeks time. Paulien's friend Inika has visited again from Holland with her 2 daughters which was fun and different as we are very much a male dominated household with 3 boys. The funniest highlight last week was Inika's daughter Rose sparring with Eileen wearing boxing gloves and chasing her around the gites one evening.
Our hot water heater packed up this week so have had to change it the plumber we use is a brilliant guy he actually rings back the same day and will visit promptly ( not sure if he's really French ) lets me do most of the grunt work then inspects. A unique French worker, the irony is I buy the heaters in the UK its a German make but the price is about £200 cheaper than in France and is actually cheaper than the plumber can buy it for. He can install for me but can't buy in the UK as it has a GB sticker in it and he can only buy and install heaters with a F sticker although the heaters are identical. Vive le Marche

09:00 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this | Tags: brittany, gite, france, coat aillis, comment

08/19/2007

And this years winner is............

Peter finally won the pool competition having lost 2 previous finals and collected the much sort after trophy a cup donated by our local bank CMB. The final was a 3 way affair with John and Phil competing hard but out classed by the wily shots of Peter. Fortunately the contestants aren't drug tested as all 3 would have failed with too high alcohol content. Xav retained his junior title ( its slightly unfair as he gets to practise on the table throughout the year ) and Paulien won the Plate competition ( the losers Cup ). The last couple weeks it almost feels as if we are on holiday as most of the clients are repeaters ( some for 10 years ) and other than doing the basics it a very socialable time for us. Paulien even had time to make some division curtains for a gite with Frances who is a top curtain designer with her own range and label of interior fabrics designs.Some very happy weeks much enjoyed by all who stayed here.

19:35 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: gite, brittany, coat aillis, comment

08/14/2007

It's important to secure bike racks well

We had a client leave on Sunday in a bit of a rush the previous night I had been helping him attach his bike rack which had been damaged when he drove into a height restricted car park so we fixed it up (not very well ) the night before in the dark.So late Sunday afternoon he telephoned me to say the rack had fallen off en route to the ferry (actually he didn't make Plestin ) and he had abandoned the 4 bikes in a field outside Plestin so we have retrieved them and put them in store if he wants to collect them some time.
Yann has been having a tough time as our local vet did a poor job of stitching him up ( or stapling on Monday ) and the Friday she put in a couple stitches but next day he was worse so we took him to another vet who did major surgery on his leg and redid all the stitching. The first vet not only missed one hole in the leg which was festering she hadn't cleaned out the wound properly so it had gone gangrenous and smelly which needed to be cut out. So now Yann looks like a patchwork of steaks stitched together but is much happier and after showing him to the neighbours whose dog caused the damage they agreed to pay using their insurance.

09:20 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: brittany, france, gite

08/10/2007

Yann's hard week

Yann our ageing dog has had a bad week first he had a one sided altercation with the neighbour's dog ( he must had said something about her mother ) which resulted in a visit to the vet only 50€ for a quick rough shave and for the cuts she used a staple gun and then a few jabs not even a local anaesthetic, a hard woman.So he has been mopping around the visiters for sympathy and any spare sausages that are going then today I reversed into him ( better me than a client ) and although he's OK the staples loosened up so back to the vet for a couple stitches and another jab.A cheaper visit only 15€ this time.Our vet is from Belgium so we speak a mixture of French ,English and Dutch.
Xav has opened an ice cream shop and is making a fortune every time I take one its a minimum of at least 1€ and when we mention rental,electricity,storage costs and protection money his eyes glaze over and he changes the subject.
In August about 80% of the clients are repeaters so life is less stressful we have to organise the annual pool competition which is sponsored by the CMB (local Bank) and N Power and is contested fiercely.The winners (junior and seniors ) receive much coveted cups and various prizes

18:45 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: brittany, gite, france, hoiday, coat aillis

08/03/2007

Septics are simle things

Septic tanks are simple things they have a grease trap to stop grease going in and basically its a big tank of organic material bubbling away with lots of bugs doing their job. This is fine as long as everyone respects it and don't confuse the toilet with a rubbish bin. The classic comment I get is " Simon the toilet/shower seems to be slow and we are just going shopping " It doesn't happen often in fact i can't remember the last time ( either senility or have done this job a long time ) but yesterday we had an occasion it only took 2 hours but I found lots of objects which shouldn't be there plus the toilet roll core and those horrible "hygienic wipes " which take a 100 years to biodegrade. Still it was an interesting challenge I always like to shake hands with the clients after the job ha ha.
Summer has final arrived 3 consecutive days of sunshine and scary blue skies with no cloud cover we will be having forest fires soon. My cousin's son Henry arrived for a few days to improve his French as he is doing languages at uni in September so he did the rounds of asking for work locally and the sailing school took him on (we are friendly with the boss man there ) helping to haul boats into the water and cleaning them up on the return the hours are 10 till 6 in the evening we are still not sure whether he is getting paid!

08:40 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: brittany, gite france, coat aillis